B.C.’s transportation and infrastructure minister announced the appointment of a new container trucking commissioner and deputy commissioner today.
Duncan MacPhail was named commissioner; Michael Crawford will be deputy commissioner for the Container Trucking Commissioner’s Office. Labour mediators Corinn Bell and Vince Ready had been filling the roles of acting commissioner and acting deputy commissioner, respectively, since being appointed October 6, 2015.
Bell and Ready were stopgap appointments following the September 15, 2015, resignation of Andy Smith, B.C.’s first container trucking commissioner.
Smith, the president and CEO of the B.C. Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), had been appointed on February 3, 2015, approximately six months before his resignation.
Smith’s was a controversial appointment from the start. Unifor, the union representing around 400 container truckers who work at the port, questioned whether Smith was the right choice for the job given that he headed the organization that represents terminal operators.
Created as part of the province’s container trucking legislation, the container trucking commissioner’s role was aimed at bringing some long-term stability to a volatile container-trucking sector that been involved in three major disruptions of container cargo movement through the port since 1999. The commissioner was also charged with upholding new regulations governing truck licensing and minimum wage rates for truckers and, according to Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Todd Stone, “to support better working conditions for container truckers serving the port after a bitter labour dispute.”
That dispute disrupted container cargo movement through the port for most of March 2014.
In announcing the appointments of MacPhail and Crawford, Stone thanked Bell and Ready for “laying a solid foundation in the container trucking industry to ensure the law is being followed and truckers are being paid fairly for their work.”
And while truck turns times at Port Metro Vancouver container terminals have improved since a 14-point action plan was instituted following the 2014 truckers’ strike, all is far from quiet on Port Metro Vancouver’s container trucking front.
Earlier this year a group of trucking companies filed a BC Supreme Court petition claiming they were shut out of the discussions that resulted in new minimum rates for truckers being retroactively applied for port trucking services as part of the action plan.
The port has also postponed the next phase of container truck environmental requirements pending the outcome of a judicial review launched by Unifor.
The requirements would force drivers with trucks that have engines and exhaust systems older than 2007 to retrofit them to meet more stringent exhaust limits or buy newer trucks.
Commenting on MacPhail’s appointment, Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s B.C. director, said the union was pleased to see a continued commitment to the role of a container-trucking commissioner.
However, he said Unifor remained concerned over the lack of penalties levied on trucking companies for nonpayment of wages owing to drivers under the 14-point plan.
“There has been by my count … at least $500,000 in nonpayments to drivers that were recovered, and those employers never had to pay so much as interest on the monies owed, never mind any penalties.”
In an interview prior to the announced appointment of MacPhail and Crawford, PMV president Robin Silvester said the port’s container trucking situation was much “calmer than it was, and there is a huge amount more structure now with the provincial commissioner taking the lead in ensuring compliance with the regulations.”
But he conceded that the “there are still some bedding-down issues” that have to be worked through.
For example, Silvester said, “we still have a bit of a problem with too many trucks for the amount of business that is going through the port.”
He added, however, that “we are in a much better place than we were two years ago.”
According to the transportation ministry, MacPhail has 35 years’ experience in labour and employment law in B.C. while Crawford has 10 years of transportation policy experience internationally and in B.C.
